William Perlman/The Star-LedgerCharlie Brown's steakhouses has been sold to a private New York investment firm for $9.5 million.

After more than four decades in business, the Charlie Brown’s Steakhouse chain has been auctioned off to a New York private investment firm for just $9.5 million, a company spokesman confirmed today.

If the auction is approved Monday, Praesidian Capital Opportunity will acquire 20 restaurant locations, including 17 in New Jersey, according to Michael Freitag, a spokesman for CB Holding, the parent company of the chain.

The bankruptcy sale, first reported by the Asbury Park Press, comes more than 40 years after the iconic chain opened its first restaurant in Westfield. CB Holding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November after abruptly shuttering nearly half its restaurants and displacing more than 2,000 employees.

It is not clear what Praesidian Capital plans to do with its purchase, and the company did not immediately return a request for comment today.

Praesidian was established in 2002 and generally makes investments ranging from $5 million to $15 million on behalf of big financial firms and high net-worth individuals, according to the company’s website. It focuses mainly on acquisitions, recapitalization and providing capital for growth opportunities.

Among its recent investments, Praesidian listed $11 million to help grow upscale bowling company Lucky Strike, $16 million towards acquiring apparel company Life is Good, and $3 million to help Planet Fitness acquire World Gym International.

CB Holding’s Freitag said auction documents were filed in court today and the company was waiting for a hearing Monday to approve the sale. He declined to give further comment.

Charlie Brown’s is the last of three chains — or 39 restaurants — that CB Holding had said it planned to auction off when it filed for bankruptcy.

In February, former Charlie Brown’s CEO Russell D’Anton was sentenced to two years in prison after admitting he accepted more than $1 million in kickbacks from vendors dating to 1999.
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